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I love this helmet, i've made the inside nice and smooth with body filler, the ears can be removed as i have bolted them in place, i've cut the keyholes out ready for detailing from the inside and i'm going to fit the visor like the original, so that can be removed too.

TK-Fett wrote:
Nice bucket Keith
just wonderin how you cut the key holes out for one and exactly how do you intend to install your visor.
Thanks

I'm going to make some metal brackets for the visor, just like the real Fett helmets have.
I cut the keyholes out by drilling lots of holes in the area to be removed, then i used the drill as a kind of cutter by pulling it from one hole to the next, i then used a modeling file to clean the holes up and make them nice and square.

Looks like we're about at the same stages on our buckets, I just did the keyholes on mine and am putting the finishing touches on it before painting.

I'm curious about how you're going to make the brackets. I hope you'll put up some pictures.

As well, any ideas on what paints you're going to use?

You're not going to become a blasphemer and put a ROTJ paint scheme on it are you?

Jer

Keith wrote:
I'm going to make some metal brackets for the visor, just like the real Fett helmets have.
I cut the keyholes out by drilling lots of holes in the area to be removed, then i used the drill as a kind of cutter by pulling it from one hole to the next, i then used a modeling file to clean the holes up and make them nice and square.

Its going to be an ESB version, i will either try and buy some of the visor brackets, or cut them out of sheet steel, drill the hole for the screw and then bend them into shape.
I will glue them to the inside of the helmet, then apply over them like the ROTJ version.

Where does one buy these visor brackets though? Are these just something standard out of a hardware store, or is someone custom making them (if you don't make them yourself that is)

Jer

Keith wrote:
Its going to be an ESB version, i will either try and buy some of the visor brackets, or cut them out of sheet steel, drill the hole for the screw and then bend them into shape.
I will glue them to the inside of the helmet, then apply over them like the ROTJ version.

I've never seen the brackets for sale, but then again i've never looked for them.
I'm sure you will find brackets that will do the job at any hardware store, but i think you will have to bend them yourself to get the angle right.

Well I have to look at the pics very closely again, but it could very well be that the screws merely clamp the visor in place, and they do not go all the way through. I can't say I have seem any definite pic supporting either the screw through or clamp theory. But I'll post some tonight.

From that pic, it appears that the screw is merely clamping the visor in place, possibly going partially into the visor, but not through the helmet itself. The reason I say that is because if the screw was going all the way through the helmet and say cut off and puttied over, why wouldn't they have screwed the screw all the way flush to the visor rather than leave the gap between the two? Wouldn't the visor would be flapping back and forth?

The bracket is more than likely just epoxied to the helmet. This would make for easy replacement of a cracked visor without having to rip out any glue although I would consider possibly spot gluing a few areas (ends of the 'T', where the 'T' starts to go downward, and at the very bottom) just for a little insurance. I haven't installed the visor in my "movie size" helmet yet, so some collective opinions would be nice.

Bobafettish...
Yes, I agree....the bracket was probably attached (glued or fiberglassed in) to the helmet and the screw is treaded through the bracket, against the visor to keep it in place. That way you just loosen or tighten the screw to remove or install the visor, respectively. Nice eye!!!

Never thought of doing anything like that but . . . sure makes a lot of sense.

Appollo: You got it. The bracket is permanently attached to the helmet. The screw goes through the bracket and presses tight up against the visor, which in turn is pressed up tight against the helmet. That way, the visor doesn't move, but you have a very easy way of removing the visor, and theoretically, for us, you could even replace it later with a visor of a different thickness even.